Residents weigh in on Trump's 'muslim ban'

Republican front-runner Donald Trump recently said that he wants to stop all Muslim immigration into the United States, at least temporarily. Trump made the remarks after terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, California.

Out on the street, some folks in Columbia Falls agreed with Trump, others did not. 

“Yes. Cause we have our own people to take care of,” Corean Price said.

“Absolutely. Because there is no form of Muslims that believes in democracy or women’s rights,” John Naismith said. “Their whole culture is antagonistic to our culture. There’s no way we should have let them in the first place.”

However, he added that as a Christian he doesn’t believe in turning his back on them. He said that America should financially support refugees, especially families with children, to keep them in their own Islamic country.

“Absolutely. See this [holding up a U.S. Army hat]. Keep them out. Seal the borders. Build a wall. Whatever it takes,” Ed Parks said.

Others thought Trump was too strong in his call to ban all Muslims.

“Yes, ISIS Muslims. Not U.S. citizens though,” Lisa Marshall said. “It’s scary. You never know what they’re going to do.” 

But she said that U.S. citizens shouldn’t be allowed to stay if they are radical Muslims and support ISIS.

“Uh … I think he’s about 90 percent right. Maybe something a little different. He’s a little radical,” Rod Lennick said.

Betty Skare said she thinks Muslims should be banned in some cases.

Steve Barta wasn’t prepared to give an definitive answer but posed the thought of “how do we keep our country and our people safe?”

“Not all. I mean, it’s hard to trust anything in any sort of media coverage,” Hunter Role said.

Some disagreed with Trump and pointed to background checks as the problem.

“I don’t think so, but there should be a better way of doing a background check,” Stephanie Ragan said.

“No, they’re not all bad,” Katrina Millward said. “Doing checks on everybody is good. … There are probably bad people in the U.S. who shouldn’t be here.”

“No. Because it’s not all the Muslims, just the radical ones. And they know who they are,” Bob Russell said.

But others vehemently opposed Trump’s statement citing that it is against the Constitution.

“This country was founded on freedom of religion. Isn’t that what our forefathers fought for?” Tina Gordon said. She noted that the pilgrims came to America to escape religious persecution, a freedom that is in the United States Bill of Rights.

“No. We shouldn’t ban anyone from the country,” Gunner Hoerner said. Accompanying him was Alyssa Weidling who agreed, “It’s a melting pot.”

Two separate women, Shawnda Lin and Amy Stourm, said that they don’t agree with anything that Trump says.

Sometimes the subject brings tension to the home.

One woman, who declined to give her name or answer the question, said her husband and her fight about it all the time.